Honorary Degrees

The Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters is awarded by the Board of Regents to individuals distinguished by their national or international reputations or accomplishments in scholarship, public service, profession, industry or other areas.

Honorary Degree Conferee

W.S. Merwin

Appointed the 17th U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2010–11, W.S. Merwin continues to be an international educator in the highest sense of the word.

Through poetry, prose and translation, Merwin has been a force in American poetry for 60 years, receiving nearly every major award for poetry, including Pulitzer Prizes for The Carrier of Ladders and The Shadow of Sirius. He also won the National Book Award, Tanning Prize, Bollingen Prize, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award.